You know it's sadly comical but John's assessment of Armadillo embarrassing the big name contractors was spot on. Here I was thinking for years that the DC-X had done that for 10 million or so, yet John and his crew have come very close to equaling the DC-X for 200K.

You know it's sadly comical but John's assessment of Armadillo embarrassing the big name contractors was spot on. Here I was thinking for years that the DC-X had done that for 10 million or so, yet John and his crew have come very close to equaling the DC-X for 200K.

While the shuttle and ISS have cost way more that they should have, I don't think that is true of DC-X. That vehicle cost only 50 times what Armadilloâ€™s vehicle cost and it was hydrogen powered, much larger and not built with free volunteer labor. DC-X is actually a model of how space could be done IMO. The fact that DC-X got cancelled is where the shame is in that program.

You know it's sadly comical but John's assessment of Armadillo embarrassing the big name contractors was spot on. Here I was thinking for years that the DC-X had done that for 10 million or so, yet John and his crew have come very close to equaling the DC-X for 200K.

And it was that comment that ended the interview. It figures.

But quite right , however with my own experiance, a company existing for several years always requires more money to do the same, due to more costs like, actually paying people as they should receive for their work, education programs, marketing and other investments etc. However with the work John did.. I think indeed it can be done at a lower cost, but I think for a larger company, it will be about 5 Million us$ or so. But maybe for that smaller similar as Armadillo Aerospace inventive companies are important.

EDIT: I see campbelp2002 posted just before me.. I have to agree with him, also remember DC-X didn't had the tools available today.

You know it's sadly comical but John's assessment of Armadillo embarrassing the big name contractors was spot on. Here I was thinking for years that the DC-X had done that for 10 million or so, yet John and his crew have come very close to equaling the DC-X for 200K.

While the shuttle and ISS have cost way more that they should have, I don't think that is true of DC-X. That vehicle cost only 50 times what Armadilloâ€™s vehicle cost and it was hydrogen powered, much larger and not built with free volunteer labor. DC-X is actually a model of how space could be done IMO. The fact that DC-X got cancelled is where the shame is in that program.

As you said the only shame for the DC-X was that it got canceled. I definitely agree that they showed how a program should be run. Unfortunately nobody paid any attention then. Maybe Armadillo will change that.